pentahotel Ipswich

The pentahotels group has brought its innovative and engaging formula to Ipswich. With its distinctive mix of high-quality accommodation, glitzy home-style design and an open invitation to enjoy relaxed sociability, no wonder this rapidly expanding brand attracts loyal followers wherever it goes.

Check availability

Add flight

Rooms from

£44per night

Check-in

Check-out

Occupancy

Rooms

Adults

Children

Ages of children

Airport

Location

6/10

pentahotel Ipswich is to the south west of the town centre, just a five-minute walk from the railway station. U-shaped around its small car park, one side overlooks the fairly busy Ranelagh Road, but the other side, and the hotel’s verandah, face onto the tidal River Gipping (which becomes the River Orwell), and the Sir Bobby Robson footbridge, which leads to Ipswich Town football stadium nearby. The centre of town and the fashionable Waterfront are both about 15 minutes’ walk away.

Style & character

7/10

The distinctive approach of the pentahotels brand is immediately obvious from the lobby and large, adjacent L-shaped lounge. The reception desk doubles as a bar, open 24 hours a day, and open to all-comers. The lounge has an informal, agreeably lived-in look, with comfortable settees, bare-brick walls and wooden floors, bric-a-brac and curios, and library shelves piled with books, plus a pool table and a games console with screen. The overall look is a subtle combination of theatrical glamour and clubland comfort.

Service & facilities

7/10

The staff, dressed in Diesel-designed T-shirts, are welcoming and attentive; the hotel offers 24-hour room service. Many guests are in Ipswich on business, and there are two meeting rooms with capacity for up to 45. There is a small but well-equipped fitness room, with half a dozen machines and weights. The hotel has two lifts; onsite parking is limited (£8 per night; book in advance).

Bar

Fitness centre

Laundry

Parking

Restaurant

Room service

Wi-Fi

Rooms

7/10

The 126 rooms come in three categories: penta rooms; the larger penta plus rooms; and two pentaplayer pads – junior suites equipped with a large games screen and a retro arcade game (pinball or space invaders). The décor, in soothing beige, grey, rose pink and mauve, mixes clean, modern lines with home comforts, spiced with a touch of workshop style in the lighting. Cupboards are replaced by open shelving and a hanging rail. All rooms have a desk, a retro-style dial telephone, tea and coffee-making facilities and hairdryer, and a large, very comfortable bed; the TVs have free on-demand movie and sports channels. The neat, glass-and-mirror bathrooms have showers only (mostly rain showers); the bathroom products are by Anatomicals.

Food & drink

7/10

Breakfast is a copious buffet offering full-English cooked fare, as well as a continental selection of cold meats, cheeses and pastries, plus fruit juices, boxed cereals, Bonne Maman jams, pancakes and maple syrup, smoked salmon and Prosecco. Once breakfast is cleared away, the restaurant (open all day to midnight) serves a long menu of appetising comfort food, such as steaks, burgers, fish and chips, steak-and-kidney pie, lamb shanks, Caesar salad, pasta, pizza and sandwiches. The hotel’s huge, square bar offers a full range of drinks, and on every floor there are vending machines with soft drinks, mineral water, sweets and packet snacks. If you want to eat out, the staff are happy and well-versed to advise.